Re: I am Mr. Trunk Slammer

["alarman" <alarman2000@xxxxxxxxx>]

Roland wrote:
> Today for a time I was feeling like I was Mr. Trunk Slammer. I am
> standing by to do a download of a DSC 1864 for a takeover of a Moose
> Z1100. I am happy that at least the Z1100 is going. So a tech says
> can you download the panel via an Uplink. Well of course I can't.
> Well get a laptop and get over here and program it since there is a
> ton of custom text and we are going on overtime. So I go to the
> laptops. Acer? Nope, no serial port and I don't want to fool around
> with a USB to serial adapter. IBM stink Pad? Serial port available
> but the battery isn't charged. Yes! Brand new Dell 820 with a serial
> port and good battery. Okay! So I download the DLS software, install
> it, and then try to find a PC-Link. Well for some reason there are
> none to be found. Off to the parts house I go. Get the PC-Link, and
> off to the customer. I hook up the laptop. I (try) to connect the PC
> to the PC-Link panel adapter. It won't go on the panel. I am pushing
> as hard as I dare. It still won't work! I give up and call tech
> support feeling like an idiot. Why can't I do something this simple?
> I talk to tech support and tell them this item is brand new out of
> box and yet it appears there are pins inside the adapter that look
> snapped off and appear to be blocking the male pins on the PC-1864
> board. Let me put you on hold Pedro the tech support guy says. Then
> He comes back and says "what you have is a manufacturing defect."
> "The panel adapter portion was put on backwards." "We thought we got
> them all, but one or two must have slipped by." I have been in the
> business long enough to know when I am being lied to. I knew he was
> lying. The Richard M. Nixon lie. The "It's your baby" lie. I called
> the parts house. It is getting near closing time. They say they will
> put a new one for me outside if they leave before I get there. I say
> fine. However I said before I take the time to drive over there
> please check your stock to see if they are bad too. Well, all of the
> dozen or so PC-Links he had in stock all were bad save one. I got the
> one good one.  If it was Bosch instead of DSC I would have seen a
> tech bulletin, probably got $75 bucks and maybe a new panel or two
> for my trouble. DSC's idea is you're damn lucky we gave you a new
> part without checking the manufacturing date, even though we just
> gave it to you. DSC is cheap and available, but still does everything
> it can factory wise to make dead certain it stays at the bottom of
> the heap. Time after time DSC seems bent on making the installer look
> foolish by being forced to disappoint the customer by missing the
> time widow for installation, thus taking the customers time and the
> installers time and puting the profit for the job in the tank. I
> guess that is one way to know you putting out garbage at everyone's
> expense except yours. Many installers like DSC because they know it.
> This may be the last straw for DSC here. We don't move enough DSC for
> them to gave a rat's ass, but if you drop enough dealers one by one
> DSC could join the likes of Franklin, Vertex, Sescoa etc. Some of us
> can hope.

Stop whining. You could have keypad programmed that puppy in about 20
minutes, including the custom text.
js